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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

This post as been a long time coming. It's been on my mind and growing in my thoughts and in my heart for the past several months. And I'm not sure that tonight is the best time to write it, but I'm gonna go ahead and try. So, we'll start in the middle. Because it's hard to say when exactly this whole thing started and I don't know when if or when it will end.

So, my mom reads my blog. She is probably my #1 most faithful reader and devoted fan. But, actually, my mom has been my #1 most faithful reader my entire life. I have a lifetime full of memories of me handing pieces of writing to my mom for her to look over and give me feedback on. School papers. Poetry. Stories. Anything and everything. And while she's always very kind, after a lifetime of being my own personal editor, I also trust her to be honest with me.

You probably didn't know this, but every now and then I make really dumb typos on my blog. And then later that day I'll get an e-mail from my mom saying, "It's actually spelled this way, honey, not that way. If you spell it that way it means this instead. Love your writing! Love you!" It doesn't hurt my feelings when my mom critiques my writing because I know--as I have always known--that she is only trying to help me be the best writer I can be. Which, on the flip side, makes her compliments about my writing just that much more gratifying. Because I know she's not going to tell me, "That was the best thing I've ever read," when it wasn't the best thing she's ever read. You know?

Well, yesterday I wrote this blabbering post about whatever and mentioned that I sometimes feel like I've been blogging for four years and still don't have much to show for it. My mom left me a comment calling me "unflinchingly honest" and saying, "As you've evolved from being mostly about crafting and sewing to being mostly about navigating life, I think your content is stronger now than ever." (Thanks, Mom.)

Unflinchingly honest.

I've been rolling it over and over in my mind and carrying it around with me everywhere I go since I read that. But, actually, I've been thinking about it for months.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

I'm done online and ready to sign off and get to bed, but I'm waiting for something to finish uploading. It claims it's only going to waste 7 more minutes of my life. So I thought I'd pop in and see what could be said in 7 minutes. Here's what's on my mind:

Denim on denim -- Hanging out on a jeans quilt that I made when I was 19

I just read what feels like the millionth blog post written by someone who has a gorgeous blog with excellent content... and only started their blog a year ago. I'm happy for her and impressed by her work. I'm man enough to say that. But I'm also man enough to admit that I find posts like that so discouraging. I started my blog four years ago and there are times when I don't feel like I have much to show for it. Every time I read one of these posts I have to remind myself the following: I started from scratch with zero design, photography, or tutorial-writing skills. I also did not start this blog as what it has now grown into. Still, comparisons, comparisons, comparisons.

A pink day and some homemade toast

Olivia is starting preschool next week. Today she and I got to go and meet her teacher and see her classroom. Her teacher seems very capable and nice and fun. Her classroom has a loft with a playhouse set up in it and lots of other fun activities, not to mention a room full of friends of all different backgrounds. While her teacher was going over some paperwork with me, she was asking me some fairly basic questions about Olivia. Just the kind of stuff that's handy for a preschool teacher to know about a kid. What upsets her. What makes her happy. What she's into. When she got to the end of one of her lists of questions, she looked up at me and asked, "Anything else I should know about Olivia?" I kind of awkwardly said, "Uhh, yeah. She's pretty advanced."

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Our computer -- Every electronic device in our house that picks up wireless internet is working just fine. The modem is working just fine. Our big nice computer that I do all my work on? It's been on strike since Friday night. It WILL NOT connect to the internet. It knows it can, it just won't. My best friend's husband who is our favorite computer genius to call and pester with all our dumb computer questions spent at least an hour and a half on the phone with us in the past two days trying everything he can to help us fix it. And still the computer remains on strike. Tomorrow we're calling Dell. May they have a magical answer that will be easy and not cost us buckets of sweet moolah. In the mean time I'm having to use my baby laptop. Ordinarily it gets neglected until we go on a trip or something and want to have a portable computer with us. It's convenient for that. Not really for much of anything else.

Olivia's birthday party -- I planned her party weeks ago. Date, time, location. Handed out invitations. Done and done. Then today in church they announced that there's going to be a church activity on the exact same day at the exact same place and at the exact same time as Olivia's birthday party. Booo.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Thanks to all of you for hanging in there these past few months while I've been stressing over it. I was so relieved when I called today and the nice lady on the phone told me that Olivia had indeed gotten in and we'd be getting more information soon. Hooray hooray! I am so excited for her.

I think she is just going to love every single thing about it. We went in today to drop off a bit of paperwork, so Olivia got to see her school (briefly) for the first time and I'm not sure she fully understood what was going on, but she was still pretty excited. We'll go in to meet with her teacher one-on-one in the next week or two and I think/hope it'll sink in for her a little more after that.

I am of course super excited for her, but I was a little surprised by just how relieved I felt to finally hear that she would be able to start after all. I had been trying my best to be chill about it and think, "If she gets in, cool. If not, no big deal." But when I found out today that she would be starting after all, I realized that part of the reason it's such a big deal is the fact that now I can actually start making some sort of plan for our lives for the next nine to ten months (i.e. the school year.). I hadn't consciously realized that I was waiting back on news that would make that big of an impact on our lives.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The funny thing about me is that most of my stressing about things happens during the phases of the unknown. "Am I pregnant?" "Will Olivia get into preschool?" "Where will we live when Bryan graduates?!" The unknown stresses me out. Which is funny, really, because that's when nothing is really happening. It's also when there's nothing I can really do about the situation.

All last week when I was waiting to find out (yet again) whether or not I'm pregnant? TOTAL STRESS. Today? Meh. If you asked me how I was and I said, "Fine," I wasn't faking it. I meant it. I really am fine. Even though yesterday I was an emotional wreck. And yesterday there was still some hope that things were going my way. Today I know for sure that's not the case, so I'm ready to deal with it. Because I can deal with things once there's something to deal with. It's the not knowing what's coming that kills me.

I think the same thing will happen when I know whether or not Olivia's starting preschool. Yes preschool? Awesome. We'll get ready for it. No preschool? Okay. We'll get ready for something else.

I guess, in my own way, I'm really just a control freak.

Bryan made an interesting comment about me today, which I've reflected on and I definitely agree with what he said. I'll tell you what he said, but first you need a little background info for it all to make sense. Or maybe I just want to tell you. So I will.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Tonight I had the supreme privilege of being able to meet our friend's sweet baby boy. He's not even 48 hours old yet and there we were, my good friend and I, inviting ourselves over late at night to come and meet him. His mom (a good friend of ours) and dad (one of Bryan's classmates) were kind enough to let us barge in and oogle over him for a good long while and I couldn't be more grateful.

He was so tiny and sweet. We kept feeling his miniature little thighs, skinny little legs, papery little hands. And you really can't kiss a newborn baby on the forehead enough, you know? Your lips will never touch anything softer and you know that soon they'll get bigger and it's just not the same. He's not even mine and still I found myself trying to soak up every minute of his tininess. We took turns holding him, watching him trying to wake up and then drift back off to sleep again. And somehow, in some inexplicable way, it made me whole.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Disclaimer: As of today, we've only finished up to Lesson 19. I am no expert on this book or on teaching kids how to read in general. But I'm happy to tell you what I do know about it and how I feel about it so far.

I've been asked about the book and the whole program in general several times since we started using it, so today I'm going to share how I came across this book and why I chose to use it, how the book works, and how it's working for us.

Here we go!

How I came to find & buy this book
As many of you already know, my daughter Olivia loves all things academic. We started doing the Starfall alphabet pages and doing other alphabet activities with her when she was really little (like, maybe 9 months?) and it's just taken off from there. She's always been pretty highly verbal, so starting alphabet practice early on just seemed natural. By the time she was somewhere between 18 months-2 years old she already knew the names of each letter and the sounds they make. But then... what to do next?

Confession: I made breakfast twice this morning. The first attempt was a major disgusting flop. I made the egg white omelet I make for myself every morning, but I made the mistake of making Olivia's eggs first and the pan was hotter than it usually is when I cook my omelet. The result was an egg white omelet that was a little over-cooked on the outside and repulsingly undercooked on the inside. Icky icky icky. Runny egg yolks are one thing, runny egg whites are quite another. I spit out the bites in my mouth, abstained from hurling, and dumped the rest of the omelet. Boo. Goodbye breakfast. Luckily I still had my fresh berries and toast to enjoy, but it wasn't quite enough to fill me.

When we got back from our walk I decided to go for round two: pancakes. Mostly to bribe Olivia into eating some, I decided to add some sprinkles. The result was, well, quite cheerful. :)

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Life lately has been good. It's been crazy and boring, fun and quiet, filled to the brim and comfortably empty. It has its ups and downs for sure, but life around here lately has mostly been busy and good. More and more, with fall coming and the school year starting (and Olivia possibly starting preschool) I feel like our lives are in for a big change soon. Or not. It's hard to say, but I definitely feel change in the air. I think our days staying at home and playing in the basement all day are numbered. And that's just fine with me.

As much as I've loved the groove we've been in for the past while, I'm ready for change too. I'm gonna try my best to welcome it and not fight it. It's hard to look at the start of another school year and not think, "Finally, we'll get back into our normal routine," because it seems like that will naturally happen. But "normal" never stays the same for long when you have a little kid who is constantly changing.

Last night I called one of my best friends who teaches kindergarten and picked her brain for more ideas about what to do with this learning-hungry child of mine. Thank goodness for Emily and her patience and enthusiasm for sitting on the phone with me and trying to explain how to teach addition and subtraction and other basic stuff. It's amazing how easy and straight-forward teaching is NOT. Okay, well, it is, but it definitely takes some thinking through ahead of time for some things and I am so grateful to Emily for letting me pick her brain so often. :) If she wasn't so busy actually teaching kindergarten, I'd make her blog about it and then I'd do everything she said to do. Someday.

I told Bryan last night that sometimes I feel like teaching Olivia is kind of like playing a video game; all I have to do is present something and it's like suddenly that capability in her is unlocked and we're ready to move on to the next level. She's learning so much so fast that I sometimes have a hard time keeping up. Our preschool routine definitely helps me stay afloat, but, still. Her pace and enthusiasm for learning and doing little activities together is so far beyond mine. But now that we're moving forward there's no stopping and no going back. I'm in for a ride with this kid. Heaven help me keep up with her.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Alright, you may have noticed by now that I never share videos here. Our family and close friends get subjected to random videos of Olivia on our family blog from time to time, but I figured that the general public should probably be spared from my complete lack of video-taking skill.

But that might all have to change. Today.

I had been saying The Pledge of Allegiance with Olivia during our preschool routine for the past 3 weeks, but I had just been saying a word or two at a time and then having her repeat after me. Then when Bryan was doing preschool time with Olivia the other day she said half of it all on her own. Today I got her to show off her skills for the camera. Prepare yourself for some uber little kid cuteness.

I give you, Olivia saying The Pledge of Allegiance (mostly) all by herself:

Counting with pom poms that match the color of the dots on the flashcards is a great introduction to one-to-one counting, but, in my opinion, it's not truly counting and reading the number on the card because the child can easily "cheat" by just treating it like a color-matching activity. Red pom poms go with the red dots, green with green, and so on.

In this version, the child doesn't have colors to fall back on, so it opens the activity up to real counting. This is a great way to get a feel for how well your child is really counting on their own. I think little activities like this that test your child's knowledge and skills are a great way to assess where they're at and where to go from there.

This activity helps build the following skills:

number recognition

number order

one-to-one counting*

hand-eye coordination

focus/concentration

*Some of you may be wondering, "What on earth is one-to-one counting?" Sorry for not explaining the term the first time I used it. It's just a fancy way of saying that we count objects (saying "1, 2, 3...") out loud as we handle them one at a time.

In other words, it's picking up a marble, saying "1" and putting it down, picking up the next marble, saying "2" and putting it down, and so on and so forth for whatever you're counting. While it may seem simple, this is an important skill for kids to master. It's different from just being able to rattle off numbers in order. It's being able to truly count out the things they encounter.

For this activity you'll need:

A serving tray with compartments
Ours is from the thrift store. Trays like this that have a middle compartment and several compartments around the outside are great for this activity, but other trays could easily work well too. If you have a tray similar to this, but with no middle compartment, just place the objects you're going to count in a cup or bowl.

Number Flashcards

Ours are the mini version of the printable Number Flashcards I sell in my shop. (The mini version is included in the set.) You can buy them HERE on their own or HERE in the variety pack (which is a better deal).

These flashcards are perfect for this activity because they have the dots under each number so the child can check their counting by counting the dots on the flashcards. You can read more about why I'm nuts about these flashcards in my original post, The Anatomy of Great Math Flashcards.

Objects to count

I like using these flat marbles (the kind that they use in fish tanks and vases and stuff) because they're easy to handle and they don't roll around like regular marbles do. Also, I like them because they all look the same and you can buy a whole bag of them for really cheap. (Ours are from the dollar store. Look for them in the isle with the craft and floral stuff.)

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Note: I originally wrote this as a post just to share on our private family blog. Not because it's overly personal or because it's a secret, but because I sometimes feel really judged when people hear about some of the preschool stuff I do with Olivia and then say that I'm a dictator parent or that I don't let her play enough or something. I don't believe that either of those things are true (Olivia just really loves this stuff), but I still don't enjoy hearing it. It's hard to do something with your kid that you feel really passionate about and then be negatively judged for it.

Also, I was reluctant to post this here at first because I know there are a ton of awesome kids out there who aren't doing this stuff yet and they tend to have really nice and awesome parents who feel inadequate when they hear about some of the stuff Olivia can do. I hate for people to feel that. Especially since 99.9% of Olivia being able to do this stuff is just plain Olivia being her own little self. She loves school stuff and would do it all day every day if I had the energy for it. If she wasn't into preschool stuff, then we probably wouldn't do so much of it. In other words, I have just as much admiration for kids who are awesome at playing outdoors, are really friendly, or who actually eat all the food on their plate without having to be reminded to eat ten million times a day. (Err... sorry for the rant about eating. It drives me crazy though.)

So I was reluctant to share this post with the general public at first. But then I remembered that you guys are awesome and super supportive and I was probably overanalizing the whole thing. And I thought you might enjoy hearing some fairly uncensored updates about what this kid of mine has accomplished lately. (Believe it or not, she does more than model clothes I make for her.) :)

So, I give you: the Bragalog (a.k.a. Olivia is Awesome).

______________________________________

I would now like to shamelessly brag about some things that Olivia can do/has done recently.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

When I used to teach preschool at a Montessori school, washing the dishes was one of the kids' favorite works to do. Even the little little kids were super focused on and delighted by their work. It was a major win. Though I admit, as a teacher, I got tired of it because it usually meant a lot of spilled water on the floor.

I had kind of forgotten all about that experience until I saw Olivia busy at work washing these cookie cutters this morning. We had finished all but the last part of our preschool routine and when we were deciding what to do for "play" I suggested that we go upstairs and wash the cookie cutters. Olivia was thrilled.

I bought this big box of cookie cutters at the thrift store a week or so ago and they have been sitting in their box just taunting Olivia ever since they came in the door. She's been itching to put them to use with her play dough, but I insisted that they get washed first.

Well, wash them we did.

P.S. My ego would like to say that these pictures are not my best work. I blame that on my own lack of skills, the fight I was having with getting the auto flash to not turn on, and the fact that I can't move the kitchen sink closer to a window. Okay, the end. Back to the important stuff now.

This is a great little activity for practicing counting. We've already done this activity several different ways (I'll be sharing a couple more of those variations in the future), but I thought I'd start with the easiest one. You'll know what level your child is at and you can easily change the activity to suit their needs.

The basis of this activity is to place some number flashcards on a tray, choose color-coordinating pom poms (the right number of pom poms to match the number on the flashcard and the color on the dots of that flashcard), and then have the child count out the right amount of pom poms for each number. It's basic, but (at least in my opinion) effective.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Folks, this old blog has been in some serious need of reorganization. Or rather, just some more obvious/ clean organization. And after an e-mail from my mom last night telling me that she couldn't find the page with all the preschool stuff, I decided it was time to do something about it. I am happy to say that I have solved the problem! (At least for now. I always seem to be trying to change things. Such is life.)

So here are a few updates you may find helpful when navigating this here blog and trying to find some things you might be looking for...

All of the tabs (that used to be in the sidebar) are now at the very top of the blog just under the header.

Instead of taking you to an actual page on my blog, the TUTORIALS tab will now take you to my Pinterest board that has all of my tutorials on it. This is to make it easier for you to find and repin the things you like. It also makes it infinitely easier for me to keep it updated.

The PRINTABLES tab is new and is also a link to my Pinterest board that has all of my printables on it.

The RECIPES tab is new and is also a link to my Pinterest board that has all of my recipes on it.

The PRESCHOOL tab will take you to a page on my blog with all of the preschool ideas/tutorials/printables. That page is organized by category to help you find the specific kinds of activities you're looking for. At the very bottom of that page is a link to my Pinterest PRESCHOOL board that has all of my preschool stuff on it.

The FOLLOWERS (you know, that thing that you can click on to follow this blog) is now back up on the sidebar so it's easier to find. Question: Do you still "follow" blogs that way or do you have another favorite/more convenient way to follow your favorite blogs?

Everything else is kind of the same old stuff. Now it's just hopefully easier to find! Is there anything else you've tried looking for here that you'd like easier access to?

I'm curious how you'll all feel about having so many of these pages just directly linked to their corresponding Pinterest boards. Is that good? Bad? Easier for you? Too crazy? I'd actually really love your feedback about that.

Monday, August 6, 2012

I have several good little preschool tutorials coming up in the next week or so and several of them put these pretty little flashcards to good use.

From now until this Saturday (Aug 11), get the value pack with the Numbers Flashcards, Alphabet Flashcards, Colors Flashcards, Shapes Flashcards, and Weather Matching Game for only $5! (That's 50% friends!) No coupon code unnecessary. Just hop on over to the shop!

For more details about why I love love love these flashcards, check out these previous posts:

This is an activity ("work") we did all the time when I taught preschool at a Montessori school before my daughter was born. The basic idea here is pretty straightforward: sort little stuff into the compartments on the ice cube tray. But there is a little bit of method to the madness. In fact, really, if the kid is doing it right, there shouldn't be any madness at all.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Tonight I made my favorite homemade pizza. The dough is a recipe my mom has been using since her 8th grade home ec class and it has been a family favorite for years. The spices make it smell (and taste) so, so yummy even though it's such a no-fuss recipe. I mean, if an 8th grader can do it, you know it's easy, right?

Combine
lukewarm water and sugar. Add dry yeast
and stir. Let stand for about 5 minutes
until yeast is dissolved. Combine
shortening, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano in a large bowl. Add yeast mixture to shortening mixture. Add flour to shortening and yeast mixture,
adding 1 cup of flour at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Roll dough
out onto a lightly floured surface until dough is about ½” to 1” thick. Place dough on a greased cookie sheet and
turn dough up around edges to make a slight rim. Cook dough (without toppings) at 425°
for 8 minutes.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Olivia and I were both getting a little bored today. We tried playing outside, but none of our friends were out and it was getting hot, so I lured her back into the air-conditioned house with the promise of "making a boat" after we finished her reading lesson. Truth be told, I didn't really have anything specific in mind when I told her that we'd "make a boat," but it sounded fun in my head.

I thought she had forgotten about it, but as soon as we finished her reading lesson (which was so fun and easy today--thank goodness!) she reminded me that it was time to "make a boat." Hmm. We had made paper boats (like this) for preschool before and they didn't go over so well. They get soggy and sink, even if you make them out of wax paper. So I started looking around the kitchen for small things that might float and we came up with a fun and easy little boat design.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Olivia has been in serious need of some new shirts. Most of her shirts these days are too short and too hard to get over her head. I tried to just go buy some, but apparently most kids grow proportionally (like, you know, they get bigger around and taller at the same time) and Olivia is not most kids. She is long and skinny with what must be a big head because it never wants to fit through her shirts. Anyway, yesterday I finally got busy and made a few new shirts for her.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

This is the one nice thing I have to say about having my hair down: it makes my face look slimmer (sometimes).

That is the one nice thing I have to say about having my hair down. Everything else about having my hair down drives me crazy. So, ya know, look at the picture if you want to know what I look like that way because it probably only happens for more than a few minutes in real life about five times a year. Not kidding.

Also, I'm pretty proud of myself because I took this picture after I got up to go running early early early and came back and showered and got dressed. It's kind of like I'm a real grown up, but not really. (But still be proud of me for going running early early early.)

On Sunday I had a super bad headache and stopped Bryan during his emptying of the dishwasher because the clanking of the silverware was unbearable. On Monday I forgot that I had stopped him halfway through his kind act of emptying the dishwasher and I thought the mostly-empty dishwasher was dirty. And I, uhh, put a fork with raw egg on it right in with all the clean silverware. Sigh. On Tuesday (today) all the silverware was dirty. Luckily this frog fork (is it just me or is it in kind of an awkward pose?) happened to be clean. Unfortunately, it doesn't cut through my gourmet omelet very well.

Shortly after I ate my gourmet breakfast I crashed on the couch while Olivia watched a show and climbed all over me for an hour. When I woke up and thanked her for being such a good girl while I took a nap she responded, "I get a penny?" Yes. An hour long nap is definitely worth a penny.